Armenia ruling force MP: Azerbaijan statements about bilateral negotiations are just statements

Armenia wants the negotiations to have productiveness, and all the logic that was formed and there were agreements during the negotiation process, to be expressed in the peace agreement, and, also, for Azerbaijan to publicly reaffirm them. Sargis Khandanyan, an MP of the ruling majority Civil Contract Faction and Chair of the Standing Committee on Foreign Relations of the National Assembly (NA) of Armenia, told this to reporters at the NA Wednesday—and referring to the fact that Azerbaijan proposes that its negotiations with Armenia proceed in a bilateral format.

"Armenia insists that the content of the negotiations is first of all important. As for the format of negotiations, of course, we [i.e. Armenia] underscore that the formats that have already been formed—in particular, negotiations at the level of foreign ministers took place in Washington, negotiations at the level of heads of states at the EU platform—they be continued. They give a certain international standing to the negotiations, make the negotiations more legitimate, and, also, make the risks more manageable.

"[Azerbaijan’s] statements about bilateral negotiations are just statements. I don't think there was any proposal to Armenia to specify any place, time, day for Armenia to participate in negotiations with Azerbaijan, and Armenia rejected that proposal.

"You know that bilateral negotiations continue in the [Armenia-Azerbaijan] border delimitation commissions, also, direct bilateral negotiations took place in December last year on the issue of the return of prisoners of war. Armenia is ready to continue the conversation within the framework of similar issues," said Khandanyan.

And regarding the remark that the international mediators also guarantee that the agreements will be fulfilled, the Armenian ruling force MP said: "That is also a question and subject of discussion whether the mediators are guarantors or just facilitators. These are questions that constantly arise during negotiations. I'm not saying the format is not important, but that format should contribute so that the content to be reaffirmed and recorded."